By Mike Bryant
Out of the shows I've been asked to review for this musical season, Sister Act is probably the one I had the least formed opinion about. I've listened to the Original London Cast Recording many times and, although there were a couple of songs that I adored, by the time the recording finished, I was left more bamboozled than satisfied. This only goes to show that though there are some shows that are just as enjoyable to sit down and listen to, there are other shows that need the full spectacle to be fully appreciated. Sister Act definitely falls into the second category for me. For those of you who haven't seen the film (that idea makes me sad. I actually had to explain to a friend who Whoopi Goldberg was today. There are people in the world who don't know who Whoopi Goldberg is! But I digress...) Sister Act is about a lounge singer named Deloris Van Cartier who witnesses a mob murder and gets hidden away in a convent so the evil gangsters can't find her. What ensues are many classic fish-out-of-water shenanigans set to a disco-inspired beat. What I got from Wellington Musical Theatre's production of Sister Act was exactly what I expected. Fun, light, fluffy entertainment. The amount of effort that the cast and crew put in was obvious and exactly right. The choreography by Stacey Neale was fantastic and seemed to fit each individual cast member's abilities to a tee and, even though I am very much not a dancer (see every Footlights show I've been in, ever), the choreography had that rare quality of making me want to get up, don one of those faaaabulous nun outfits and join in - it looked like that much fun! Wellington Musical Theatre obviously has a larger budget than most amateur theatre companies and that showed in the sets and costumes, both of which set the time and place accordingly. Particularly the costumes. I want the costumes. All of them. I don't care if they don't fit me, I want them. Leading the cast was Deloris, played by Lahleina Feaunati. Feaunati sang the role with such conviction that made the character's singing career seem like a legitimate thing. She nailed every single note and I was absolutely blown away; my only major note on Feaunati was that although she nailed the sassy, smart-mouthed aspects of the character, it started to feel a bit one-note after a while. I would have preferred to see a bit more nuance in the character with less of a focus on the sass and more on how big Deloris' heart is, especially since I feel that Feaunati could have pulled the softer parts of Deloris off really satisfactorily. Other cast members I liked were Footlights alumni Tania Parker-Dreaver as Sister Mary Patrick and Joe Mara as Sweaty Eddie. Parker-Dreaver played the adorably optimistic and perpetually cheerful nun with great aplomb (but to be fair, how much of that was acting and how much of that was just how she is in real life is up for debate) and Mara's voice soared majestically and turned a forgettable song into one of the many highlights of the show. Jess Old portrayed the sweetly shy Sister Mary Robert absolutely beautifully, fully inhabiting this character so completely that you just want to take her home and look after her. (In a parental way. Not in a creepy way.) Jonathan Morgan, Ben Emerson and WIlliam Dean (the latter two both being Footlightians... Footlighters? Footlettes?) threatened to steal the show at certain points, particularly Morgan, who I found endearingly naive and utterly hilarious. But, by far, my favourite person onstage was Stephanie Gartrell who infused the character of Mother Superior with all of the gravitas needed. Any time Gartrell made an appearance, I couldn't stop grinning. She had the exact amount of dry humour and personality required to bring such a straight-laced lady to life and her voice on "Here Within These Walls" gave me goosebumps. Overall, this show was such a fun time. I laughed a lot and it was a perfect way to escape a miserable, rainy day. Good job to the cast and crew. Sister Act runs until September 24th at the Opera House. TIckets are available at http://premier.ticketek.co.nz/shows/show.aspx?sh=SISTERAC16
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Murder, bullying, drugs, teenage sex and suicide are not typically covered in musical theatre but, as Wellington audiences will discover next week, Heathers is hardly a typical musical. Heathers: The Musical is based on the cult classic 1989 film starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater and, like the film, it includes dark topics including bullying, depression, suicide, drug use, and sexual violence. While the musical is presented as a dark comedy, the confronting themes may be challenging for some. Wellington Footlights is proud to be partnering with Youthline to help support audience members and spark healthy discussion. “We have a responsibility to look after our audience’s well-being. While we think the musical appropriately tackles these important issues, we also appreciate that audience members may struggle with the themes explored,” says Heathers director Karen Anslow. “The homophobia, the bullying, the language in Heathers is a product of its time, but these themes are still relevant to young people even 30 years later, with online bullying a prevalent and growing problem. While we think the musical approaches these themes respectfully, it is difficult to know what may trigger strong emotional reactions, which is why we will be at the performances supporting people,” says Chloe Bisley-Wright, Youthline Wellington’s Education & Youth Development Coordinator. Youthline staff members will be in the foyer during intermission of all four performances and written resources will also be available. Heathers: The Musical was first performed off Broadway in 2014 but it is set in 1989. The musical, which begins next week, is a New Zealand Premiere. About Heathers: The Musical 27-30 September Presented by the Wellington Footlights Society Whitireia Theatre Bookings: http://thetheatre.co.nz/bookings/ $28 adult / $20 concession Contact:
Not so long ago, it came to our attention that not one, not two, but five major musicals were being staged around central Wellington. This is pretty rare; mostly, we aren’t this in sync but, for whatever reason, this year we all wanted to put on musical shows at the same time. After some discussion, the Footlights decided that it was far better to partner with our friends and support their work than try to compete against them. After all, we are all dedicated to musical theatre. So we sat down with our friends at Stagecraft, Backyard Theatre, Wellington Musical Theatre and Whitireia Performing Arts School and create a collaboration. This collaboration is mostly around publicity of all the shows, but we also share things like props, as well as talent. Footlights brought several big offers with us: publicity (like writing media releases), project management and... our own resident musical snob, Mike Bryant. We’ve arranged for Mike to see as many shows as he can and write his own review. His first review was a bit of challenge for him: Urinetown by Stagecraft. Without further ado, here’s Mike to tell you all about the show...
A Review of Urinetown by Mike Bryant I'm not going to beat around the bush; when it comes to Urinetown (the show itself, not this individual production) I am not a fan. Now, don't get me wrong, I like toilet humour (tee-hee. Toilet) as much as the next fellow, maybe more, but I just never managed to wrap my head around this show. However, that didn't stop me from having a bladder-bursting good time at the Stagecraft production currently playing at the Gryphon Theatre. That sentence was very nearly literal. If you go to see Urinetown, don't make my mistake and over indulge on the water beforehand. There is a lot of talk about urination and towards the end of the first act... well... let me just say that it was not a comfortable experience, dear reader. The first thing I noticed when I walked into the theatre was the set. And what a set it is. Illuminated to gloomy perfection by lighting designer David Heaphy, Anna Rowe's set design is striking and effective. When I read in other reviews that the set was the reviewer's favourite part of a show, I assume it's a cheap pot-shot at the other aspects of said production, but the set really WAS my favourite part of Urinetown, and seeing as everything else was pretty solid, that's no small feat. I don't want to describe the set for you, because I don't want to take that experience away from potential audience members, but suffice to say that I've worked in the Gryphon Theatre many times over the years and I have never seen it look anything like this. The show starts with Officer Lockstock (Daniel Pooley) and Little Sally (Gemma Revell) lamenting the fact that a bad title and "too much exposition" can very quickly kill a show. Pooley is one of my favourite people to watch onstage, due to his wild-eyed mania which never fails to draw my eye, so it was a pleasant surprise to find an actor who can match him as exquisitely as Revell, and the recurring moments between these two characters became my favourite parts of the show. (Side note. I've never met her at all, but can someone please cast Revell as Little Red Riding Hood in Into the Woods? If she hasn't done it already.) In fact, the entire cast throw themselves into their roles with a huge amount of gusto, whether a lead or part of the ensemble. Of particular note for me were Wellington theatre icon Jane Keller as Miss Pennywise, who takes the lead in my favourite song "A Privilege to Pee" and Footlights whanau member Kenneth Gaffney, who shines in the seemingly written-for-him role of Bobby Strong, filling the hero with a winning combination of sweetness and steel bravery. And, of course, Ange Bickford whom I couldn't take my eyes off (which also applies to how I feel about her in real life because, damn, that woman is beautiful, crazy talented and constantly making me question my sexuality.) Bickford plays the role of Josephine Strong who, in the hands of someone less skilled, could be the sort of character that could easily fade into the background, but Bickford makes every single moment count and turned Mrs. Strong into my favourite character of the piece. But, as far as I'm concerned, the show well and truly belongs to Kira Josephson who plays the faxing (and copying) lead female Hope. I honestly cannot remember the last time I was so charmed in a theatre production. Josephson managed to emphasise the realistic qualities of a very cartoon-y character and, although I'm always the sort of audience member that roots for the villains, I was geuninely hoping all of her dreams would come true at the end. And her voice! That voice! Hearing her and Gaffney sing "Follow Your Heart" was a revelation in everything a romantic comedy duet should be. My only major quibbles with this production are probably verging on the pedantic. The lighting, which started the show off with just the right mood, became a trifle dark for my taste, to the point where I struggled to make out the expressions on a lot of the character's faces. I also feel like the show would have benefited from clearer diction. At points I had a struggle catching lyrics and dialogue from the chorus. Overall, this is an extremely solid production and a thoroughly enjoyable night out with some of the most talented performers in the Wellington musical theatre scene. I definitely recommend getting along to see it. Urinetown runs until September 24th at the Gryphon Theatre. TIckets are available at https://www.iticket.co.nz/events/2016/sep/urinetown-the-musical by Mike Bryant Legally Love, or Homosexual Law Reform Concert, or The Concert for the Gays, or The Michael Stebbings Experience Theatre is gay. At least, that's the stereotype, right? To the common person, the thought of the backstage area of a theatre production must conjure up an image of a perpetual Mardi Gras, with feathers and sequins and glitter, glitter, glitter. It must look like an oasis of beautiful, young, thin-hipped men in mascara and nail polish, mincing around, belting out the Wizard of Oz soundtrack and spouting wave upon wave of useless information about Broadway divas, living or dead. But, ignoring the fact that, apart from being thin-hipped and beautiful, I tick all of the above stereotype boxes, anyone who has ever done any type of theatre knows that all of that isn't reality - backstage is quite often dusty and dark with gaffer tape covering every surface and a plethora of half-empty water bottles. Nevertheless, theatre (particularly musical theatre) and homosexuality have always gone hand in hand in the public consciousness. Perhaps this is because theatre is a place where all the misfits and outcasts gather. I was lucky enough to have grown up in the theatre and was always surrounded by queer-identifying people so I wasn't as affected by negative opinions about homosexuality as many of my peers. It was just another personality quirk, of which the theatre is absolutely full. In considering all of this, it seemed perfectly appropriate that Wellington Footlights did a wee concert to celebrate the thirty year anniversary of the Homosexual Law Reform. From Wikipedia: "The New Zealand Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986 is a law that legalised consensual sex between men aged 16 and older. It removed the provisions of the Crimes Act 1961 that criminalised this behaviour. Homosexual male sex became illegal in New Zealand when the country became part of the British Empire in 1840 and adopted English law making male homosexual acts punishable by death. The Offences Against The Person Act of 1867 changed the penalty of buggery from execution to life imprisonment. In 1893 the law was broadened so that sexual activity between men constituted "sexual assault" even if it was consensual. Penalties included life imprisonment, hard labour and flogging. Sex between women has never been legally prohibited in New Zealand." Let me just say this again, for those in the back. "Sexual activity between men constituted "sexual assault" even if it was consensual." The Homosexual Law Reform Act was signed by the Governor General on the 11th of July 1986 and came into effect on the 8th of August the same year. I came out as gay when I was fairly young and I have lived a comfortable life and, while not completely free of bigotry and discrimination, I have never suffered too much at the hands of others because of my sexuality. Nor have I ever felt the need to hide something so fundamental to who I am as a person, and this is all because of the Homosexual Law Reform Act and those that were courageous enough to live openly in a time of such hatred. A time when people where actually thrown in jail for loving the "wrong" person. The suggestion was posed to the Footlights committee, would we be interested in doing something to celebrate the thirty year anniversary? The committee unanimously agreed The plan was thus: finish Legally Blonde, start rehearsing for the Homosexual Law Reform Concert, and at the same time start rehearsals for Heathers. Somewhere in between all of this, the Orlando shootings happened, so Footlights also performed at a benefit concert at Eva Beva to raise funds for this. The shootings also brought home the fact that there is still so much homophobia in the world and that this is an event in the history of our country that is WORTH celebrating. Musical theatre has so many roots in the gay community and vice versa, and Footlights is made up entirely of either queer or queer-friendly people, so doing something to recognise this made sense. The decision was made to perform a concert at Ivy Bar, with my drag alter-ego Mama DeZiyah and Footlights Number 1 fan Alex (Kelly Fornia) as co-hosts. All proceeds went to a queer youth support group called School's Out, which I attended when I was sixteen and was involved with for many years. This was a particularly exciting idea for me, as I have always said I have three families. My biological family (Hi Mum), my Footlights family and my Ivy family, which includes the staff Steve, Rose, James and Freya, the former staff like Alex and Blu, and fellow regulars like Braydon. (If I didn't mention them by name, I'd be in trouble.) I don't think I'd still be alive without the love and support of my Ivy and Footlights families, so combining them was an absolute dream come true. I got to host a show with some of the most talented people I know, surrounded by people I spend most of my time with, donating to a group that has helped shape my entire life and co-hosting with my best friend? If only we had Patti LuPone singing the best of Sondheim, this would be my perfect evening out. Stacey and Michael, the artistic director and musical director respectively, worked hard and put together an amazing song list for the evening, which included queer anthems like I Am What I Am, sung wonderfully by Patrick Jennings (side note, Patrick has been involved in every single Footlights show, whether a revue, a full-show or one off concerts like this), more modern musical theatre songs like An Old Fashioned Love Story, belted out in style by Ellie Stewart, pop songs like Take Me To Church sung by Ziyanda Matshe, Darryn Woods, Michael Stebbings, Ellie Stewart, Brigid Boyle and Dave McNamara with a breathtaking arrangement by Bruno Shirley, and Footlights classics such as Cell Block Tango (Pop, six, squish, uh-uh, cicero, lipschitz...) and Take Me Or Leave Me, belted to perfection by Stacey and Ruby. Kelly Fornia brought the crowd to a standstill with her performance of Firework, including a costume change and a banner reading "30 years." Kelly and I also performed our (in my mind) famous remote control duet. The concert was one of my favourite nights in my entire drag career, the crowd absolutely loved it and we managed to raise about $1000 for School's Out.
Big thanks to the cast, Patrick, Laura, Ruby, Brigid, Dom, Ed, Ellie, Dave, Zi, Margaret, Tania, Ben, Abi, Kree (who, due to unforeseen circumstances sadly had to pull out at the last minute, but put in a lot of work) and Darryn (who also helped with a lot of the technical sound-y type stuff); as well as the band, Stephen, Bruno and Paul. Also BIIIIIIIG thanks to Stacey and Michael for throwing it all together, AAAAAAAAND a huge, huge, huge, standing ovation of thanks to Steven and the bar staff at Ivy, who had to put up with us schlepping in and out of the bar for rehearsals, disrupting the cleaning crew and walking around behind the bar like we own the place. If you haven't been to Ivy, seriously you should go. Great drinks, awesome staff and probably me sitting in my accustomed corner. And, of course, my main girl and co-host, Kelly Fornia/Alex without whom, I would have been lost (in terms of both the concert, and life in general.) Love is love, and with Footlights and Ivy by my side, how could I feel anything else? by Mike Bryant I’ve done plenty of weird things in my life, but writing this blog on a Friday night in a busy gay bar next to a sign reading “I can’t talk, I may have damaged my vocal cords so I’m on voice rest” is… well, to be honest, it’s probably not even in the top ten list of weird things I’ve done, but that made one hell of an opening sentence. How did this happen? Well, if you know me at all, you will know that I consider myself a non-singer. This doesn’t mean that I can’t, on occasion, make nice noises when I sing. What it means is that singing does not come naturally to me. I have a fairly abysmal (read: non-existent) technique in which I mainly sing from my throat as opposed to my diaphragm, and I also have a tendency to muscle my voice into giving me the note that I want. Also, I am a smoker which is not recommended for, well, anything, (no, not even looking cool. Seriously, don’t start. Also don’t do drugs. And stay in school), but smoking is particularly not recommended for singers, or for those wanting to live long, healthy lives. Last Sunday, there was a roughly ten hour rehearsal, during which we sang a song called Whipped Into Shape over and over and over. This was already about eight hours into a very long, stressful rehearsal. Callahan only has two small verses in the song and they’re some of the easiest parts for me to sing, so I kept going. Eventually my throat started feeling like I’d dined on a nutritious meal of raw hedgehog and sea urchin with a sandpaper wrapping. We finished the song and Ben the director said “one more time” and I had to admit defeat. I explained to Ben about the cactus that had taken up residence in my throat and he allowed me to speak the rest of the song. When I woke up the next day, I sounded like Janis Joplin with laryngitis. At Tuesday's rehearsal, I was feeling better and tried to force my voice into reaching approximations of the correct note and boom! The prickles returned to my throat. After rehearsal on Thursday, I explained to the creative team what was going on. “Vocal rest!” screamed Ben. “Get more sleep!” assistant musical director Stephen cried. “Hydrate, bitch!” shouted Michael (who wasn’t even there at the time, but that didn’t stop me hearing his voice in my head). So, I took Ben’s and Michael’s advice (not Stephen’s, although getting more sleep is a lifelong aspiration that I pray will one day be fulfilled). For those of you who don’t know, I work in an adult lifestyle shop, which is an uptown way of saying sex shop, which is a less-colourful way of saying palace of sin. Working there while on vocal rest, turned out to be an interesting experience. I resorted to a bunch of signs which would hopefully convey every desired… desire. The signs went from “Would you like batteries with that?” all the way to “Do you prefer silicone or water-based lubricant?” with some very interesting stops in-between. When the signs failed me, I had to resort to very crude charades. I may be an actor and performer, but the art of mime was never one I had much talent for. I am also a creature of habit and it has long been my custom to go to Ivy bar after work, so here I am. In a busy night club, writing a blog post and completely unable to talk. As one of my dear friends pointed out, “When Mike can’t talk, everything feels a lot less… high-pitched.”
Rude. The staff are having a field day. Steven, the manager of Ivy, came up to me and said “Hey Mike, sing me a song and I’ll buy you drinks all night.” No dice, Steve. Nothing will sway me from my vocal rest, and I mean nothing. Not even the very attractive boy that I’ve often admired from afar deciding to finally talk to me. Seriously?! Now?! I’m not sure what’s worse, my luck with men or my luck with poorly-timed illnesses. It’s now Sunday, I woke up this morning with a body full of phlegm and the realisation that I’m sick as hell and I’m so relieved - I don’t have bronchitis, just a cold! I’m not suffering from the black plague! I haven’t damaged a vocal cord, I’m just a neurotic excuse of a drama queen! Thank god. Lots of Vitamin C and water and I should be good as gold come show time. I would try and think of a proper way to end this blog post, but I have a very attractive boy to track down and show that I can talk again. Wish me luck! |